Watching Cobra Kai, plus a lot of the manosphere plus the insurrectionists has put me in a mind of the idea of "the world's hard, so I have to make you hard to succeed" and how much that's used to justify... well, pretty much everything. But mostly abuse. /1

You see this outlook all over the place if you make even a cursory glance at just about anything, but *especially* media on the right. The outrage over "PC culture" or, as most of us call it "not being an asshole". Railing against things like banning hazing or spanking. /2

Hell, you see it in sports, when football players are lauded for playing with injuries or pushback against trying to reign in CTE. You see it with folks — mostly men — who say "this is too much, I need to step away or go to therapy" getting called weak or pussies. /3

And of course, it's all over the place online, in games, on forums, Twitter, Facebook etc. "Suck it up," "grow a thicker skin," "It's trash talking everyone gets it" and of course, the ever popular "snowflake" and "facts don't care about your feelings." /4

What I find fascinating is how much this comes down to two mindsets that intertwine like horny snakes.

1) I went through this so YOU have to, even though I hated it

and

2) A better world is not possible. This is how it always has been and how it always will be.

/5